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Boys’ basketball: CALS is a program on the rise

Los Angeles Times staff writer Ben Bolch
By Ben Bolch
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The California Academy for Liberal Studies Early College High boys’ basketball team should adopt Buzz Lightyear’s catchphrase from ‘Toy Story’: ‘To infinity and beyond!’

CALS has gone from zero wins in each of its first three seasons to a winning record in its fourth. The Falcons improved to 5-3 on Monday night with a 38-30 victory over Marlton. Matthew Mena and Moises Flores each scored 10 points for CALS, which played tenacious defense.

Falcons Coach Steve Stokes said Mena ‘did a lot of the little things that make a big difference--taking charges, diving for loose balls, making the extra pass.’ Flores held Marlton’s leading scorer to only nine points.

With a team laden with freshmen and sophomores, CALS only figures to improve as the season progresses.

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--Ben Bolch

Varsity Times Insider
Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

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